MRC Pulls Accreditation of Nielsen Diaries

The Media Rating Council has revoked accreditation of Nielsen's NSI service that includes 154 markets measured solely using diaries.

The NSI service had been accredited by the MRC since September 1965. An annual independent external audit of the NSI service was completed in 2009 and a large audit committee -- comprising MRC members representing users of the NSI service including TV stations; broadcast networks; cable networks and operators; advertisers; agencies; and trade associations -- met on multiple occasions to consider the audit results and Nielsen's responses to audit questions and committee concerns. MRC said that the audit committee voted to recommend revoking MRC accreditation of the NSI diary-only markets. Both the MRC Television Committee and the MRC board of directors subsequently ratified this conclusion.